


Love and Hate

by RedWrites



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-21
Updated: 2018-04-16
Packaged: 2018-05-28 04:41:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6315358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedWrites/pseuds/RedWrites
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What happens when Lila meets Ladybug's alter ego and finds that the girl isn't as unpleasant as she thought? And how will she handle it if they fall in love?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Crying in the Bathroom

Lila was still fuming over everything with Ladybug. That insufferable costumed lunatic had ruined everything. Now Adrien knew she was a liar, and would probably tell everyone else too. 

She hated this. It was inevitable, sure, but there was always someone who ruined everything. She could feel her face getting hot and took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. She wouldn’t cry about it, not this time. Even though she’d probably leave this place with everyone hating her again.

She hurries towards the bathroom, feeling tears on her face. She goes straight to the mirror, and sees how blotchy and red her face has gotten. She does her best to stop crying, grabbing a paper towel and running it under cold water so she can wipe her face with it.

She hears the door open and instinctively looks, wide eyed, before realizing she should run. By the time it occurs to her to hide her face, it’s too late. She still looks away as the raven-haired girl stares at her, trying to act natural while dabbing at her face with the wet paper towel.

After a few moments of pretending to ignore her, Lila hears the stranger’s steps slowly coming towards her on the tile. She doesn’t look up from the sink until she feels a hand on her shoulder. After a moment’s hesitation, she looks into startlingly blue eyes.

“Hey, are you all right?” the girl asks. Lila takes a moment to comprehend the French, giving a weak smile and nodding.

“I’m fine. Don’t worry,” she tries to assure, but the shake in her voice gives away that she was still holding back more tears.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“N-no. I don’t really want to think about it…” Lila looks away again, wiping at her eyes one last time and sniffing. She feels the hand slide off her shoulder as the girl leaned against one of the sinks.

“I haven’t seen you around before. Are you new?”

“Y-yeah. I just transferred…” Lila sniffs again, feeling her face cool down. There was something soothing about just talking to this girl. Maybe it was just the fact that it was taking her mind off of things.

“Where are you from?”

“Italy.”

“Wow, that’s quite a ways. Do you move around a lot?”

“Yeah, my parents are diplomats. We go wherever they need to for work, which means we don’t usually stick around for very long.”

“Well, I hope you won’t have to move too soon. My name’s Marinette, by the way.” The girl smiles softly, offering her hand for Lila to shake. After a bit of hesitation, Lila reaches out and grips it firmly.

“My name’s Lila. It’s nice to meet you.”

“You too. Hopefully we’ll see each other around, hm?”

“Yeah, hopefully.”

Marinette picks up her bag that she had dropped on the floor earlier when Lila wasn’t watching and nods as she goes towards the door. After thinking for a moment, Lila calls out, “Thank you.”

Marinette stops, turning back and smiling. “I’m just happy to help.” She then turns back and heads out the door, leaving Lila standing alone in the bathroom once more.


	2. The Partner Project

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The History teacher assigns partners for a project, and Marinette gives Lila her number.

“This is a partner project.”

An excited murmur spreads across the room as the teacher’s words reach the students. Everyone immediately begins making eye contact with friends, claiming them for the project.

“Don’t get too excited. I will be assigning partners.”

The murmur changes to groans as people’s hopes of working with their friends are crushed. The room sinks into a mild depression as the teacher begins calling out names.

“...Adrien and Alya...Marinette and Lila... Nino and Rose…”

Marinette sits up, turning to look at Lila. When they make eye contact she smiles softly at Marinette. Marinette waves back, then turns around. She still felt really guilty about everything with Ladybug, and she didn’t know how spending even more time around Lila would make her feel. Worse, she would assume. Her mind races as the teacher lists off more partners, wondering how terribly this would go.

“Everyone meet with your partner and begin working. How you spend class time will be a part of your grade. You may begin.”

Alya smiles at her, saying, “I bet you’re jealous,” before packing up her stuff and heading off. Marinette only has a second to look confusedly at her best friend before Lila comes into view, looking nervous but not upset. The brunette sets down her things in Alya’s seat, sitting down.

“Guess we get to see each other a lot more, huh?” Lila says, seeming much more demure than when Marinette saw her as Ladybug. In fact, Lila had seemed much quieter with everyone ever since the Volpina incident. She wouldn’t even look at Adrien anymore, which Marinette hated to admit was a relief to her jealousy.

After gathering her wits for a moment and recalling their bathroom conversation, Marinette nods. “Guess so! So, how do you want to split up this project? We could split it up by eras, so each of us only has to do a portion and then we could combine at the end.”

Lila nods. “That sounds pretty good. Do you want the first half or second?”

“Well, I’m okay with either. Whichever you prefer.”

“Okay, I can take the first half then. Mostly we’ll be doing research at first, so there isn’t much else to do until we actually start making the presentation…”

“Pretty much. Do you have a pen and paper?”

Lila looks at Marinette, confused, but offers her notebook to the girl, along with her pen. Marinette takes them and writes out her number quickly, handing back the materials. “This is my number, so that when you’re done with research you can text me and we can get together for making the presentation.”

“O-oh. Uh… okay.” Lila looks at the paper, wide-eyed and… she seems slightly more flushed than before. Marinette frowns, but turns to her tablet to start research. It was sort of funny that Lila chose the first half, since a lot more happened during that period than the second. She supposed Lila was trying to be nice.

* * *

Lila sits in her room, staring at her history notebook. She had been relieved when her partner was Marinette, the girl who had helped her stop crying in the bathroom. She was also relieved that, even after hearing her name, Marinette didn’t treat her any differently. Nobody would talk to her anymore. Well, that wasn’t true. Adrien still said hi to her when she couldn’t avoid him. They seemed to be the only two who didn’t ostracize her, though.

She had been happy to take most of the grunt work for their project, since Marinette had been so nice to her. What she hadn’t expected was for Marinette to give Lila her number. No one had ever given Lila their number before, and she couldn’t help but feel flustered and confused. Of course, it was only to work on the project… right? She couldn’t help trying to suss out if Marinette had an ulterior motive for giving her number away so easily.

She was also worried that she had been reading too much into Marinette’s actions. After all, the raven-haired girl seemed to be this friendly with everyone except Chloe. Maybe it was just her projecting more, since she’d never really had anybody actively try to be her friend before. Either way, she still hadn’t ripped the number out of her notebook. Her eyes traced and retraced the swirling loops and curves of the numbers all the way home, and she still couldn’t tear them away. It felt nice, having Marinette’s number, and she wanted to memorize it. She wouldn’t take her eyes away until she had.


	3. Distractions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette seems distracted during project time, and Lila finds that they seemed to have a common interest.

The teacher slowly walks the perimeter of the room, surveying the students as they continue to work on their projects. Marinette had been distracted all class period, glancing at Alya and glaring. Lila hadn’t noticed at first, but as time went on she had realized that her partner had been on the same website all class. After getting what she believes to be a respectable amount of work done, she pulls out her notebook and scratches out a message in pen. When the teacher is across the room, she slides the notebook over to Marinette.

After another glare at Alya, Marinette notices the notebook and picks it up.

“What’s wrong?”

Marinette seems surprised by the note, her eyebrows raising as she looks at the other girl. She grabs her pen, scribbling a note under Lila’s and passing the notebook back.

“It’s nothing, don’t worry.”

Lila frowns, looking at Marinette.

“Are you sure?”

Marinette starts to write, then pauses before writing again.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m just a little jealous, is all.”

“Jealous?”

She looks at the page and frowns. She stares at it for a long time before, finally, hesitantly, putting pen to paper.

“Can you keep a secret?”

Lila reads the message again, then looks up at Marinette. Those piercing blue eyes seem to stare into her very soul as they make eye contact. This seemed to be really serious to Marinette. Marinette, her only friend. Marinette, the one person she could actually still talk to in class. She nods emphatically, making very clear that she takes this just as seriously as Marinette does. She hands the pad back to the other girl.

Marinette scribbles out a quick note, glancing around to make sure no one else read it, and passes it to Lila.

“I have a bit of a crush on Adrien.”

Lila reads the sentence. Then she reads it again. She looks over at the back of the model’s blond head, then back to the paper. If Marinette had a crush on Adrien… it was all over the school how Lila had been flirting with him. So why was this girl being so nice to her? She takes another few seconds for it to sink in before she realizes that she’d been frowning this whole time. She scrambles to scribble a message back.

“So you’re jealous?”

Marinette nods, looking embarrassed.

“You’re a great partner, but I wish I could spend more time with him.”

Lila nods, mulling this over. Marinette probably hadn’t realized what Lila thought when she gave her number out so easily. She had probably just been thinking about the project at the time. Well, either way, Lila had a friend. That was what mattered most.

“Maybe you’ll get lucky next time around.”

Marinette reads the note, then turns to smile at the girl and nod. Whatever you said about Marinette, she was definitely an optimist. Even if she was completely oblivious about her relationships with other people. She looks a little nervous as she writes out another note.

“I hope that doesn’t hurt your feelings.”

Lila almost wants to laugh. Maybe she was a bit disappointed, but hurt her feelings? That was ridiculous. She had been so down that almost nothing Marinette could do would make her upset. She shakes her head to reassure the other girl.

“No. It’s fine. If I were you, I’d feel the same way.”

She glances at Lila nervously.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, absolutely.” She passes it back, not writing the sarcastic joke she thought of. She didn’t really know Marinette well enough to joke like that.

The other girl reads it, and smiles, seeming more relaxed now.

“I had better actually get working. Sorry for distracting you.”

“It’s all right.”

Lila takes her notebook back, going back to her research. She glances at Marinette again, who seems to be back on track. It was good to have someone so nice as her partner, even if she never really seemed focused on where she was.


	4. Quality Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette tries to bond with Lila, and gets a little more than she bargained for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone. It's been almost a year since I updated. Sorry about that. Hopefully, this'll make up for it. And I've gotten back into a writing groove, so I'm hoping to post some more sooner rather than later.

“This is the final week for these projects, so please be sure that you’re working hard. I will not be accepting any of them late. You may now move to sit with your partners.”

The students erupt into chatter as soon as the teacher breaks off, chatting with friends before moving to work with their partners. Marinette bids a quick farewell to Alya as Lila makes her way over.

“Only a week left, huh? Good thing we’re almost done,” Marinette says cheerily as Lila takes Alya’s seat and pulls out her notebook. “Thanks for working so hard. It’s good to have a partner who’s so helpful.”

“It’s the least I could do since….” Lila pauses midway through, then quickly tries to cover it up. “S-since you didn’t get to work with who you wanted.” She smiles nervously, then turns back to her notebook.

Marinette frowns, sure that Lila is hiding something. Since what? Clearly that wasn’t what she was trying to say in the first place. Marinette looks at Lila, worried that the other girl is still upset over what happened with Ladybug. She wasn’t sure how she could make it up to her, especially since she could absolutely not let her know about Ladybug’s true identity. She also didn’t want to pry too deeply into Lila’s business. They barely knew each other, after all.

Marinette looks back at her own research, which was all done. They could afford to waste a class talking. It would be nice to get to know each other, after all. It really seemed like Lila could use a friend.

“You know, we’ve been sitting next to each other all this time, but we don’t really know each other, do we?” Marinette looks at the other girl, hoping to see a positive response.

Lila glances up, blinking in surprise. “Uh… no, we don’t, do we?”

“What do you like to do in your spare time?” Marinette tries to sound casual with the question, hoping not to spook Lila into shying away.

“...I read a lot.” Lila replies, shifting uncomfortably in her seat. She seemed nervous, and Marinette hoped she wasn’t being too forward.

“Really? What genre do you like? I’m a big fan of fantasy myself.”

Lila nods, seeming to relax slightly at Marinette’s admission. “Me too.”

“What’s your favorite book?”

“Um… w-well, I… don’t really have a favorite. It’s like…”

Lila stumbles, seeming to mull over her words before speaking again.

“It’s… like choosing a favorite kid. They’re all so unique and amazing…”

Marinette smiles at that.

“What a coincidence. I feel the same way!”

Lila looks at her for a long moment, brow furrowed. She suddenly bursts out, surprising Marinette

“Why are you being so nice to me?”

Marinette frowns, taken aback.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean… you’ve probably heard what people are saying about me. How I’m a big fat liar and I’ll do anything to get people to be my friend. So why do you want to talk to me?”

Marinette gapes at her for a second, unsure what’s happening. She knew her own reasons but… she hadn’t heard any bad talk about her, besides Chloe’s usual badmouthing of nearly everyone in the school, so she had no idea why this girl would be so self conscious. After having a moment to compose herself, she speaks again.

“Lila… no one is saying that about you. You’re wonderful, and anything Chloe says is just nonsense. You have no reason to be so worried.”

Lila seems to study Marinette’s face for a long time before speaking.

“...You really mean that? No one hates me?”

“Of course not. And, you know, you seem like a really great person. You don’t have to lie to make people be your friend.”

Marinette gives her an apologetic look, a small smile on her lips as she puts a hand on Lila’s. Lila seems to blush, but speaks anyway.

“...Really?”

“Yes, really. Lila, no one has anything against you, okay?”

* * *

She couldn’t believe it. Marinette really did want to be her friend, she almost felt like crying, but this wasn’t the time or place. After a moment she realized the silence that stretched through her processing and she quickly nodded. She couldn’t leave her friend hanging.

“Yeah, okay, yes.”

Marinette smiles at her, making her heart thump strangely in her chest.

“That’s great. I’m glad.”

Lila feels herself smiling back.

“So… do you have any recommendations for books? I’m always looking for something new to read…”

Marinette pauses for a moment seeming to rack her brain for an answer.

“Well… it’s been a while… but… even though it’s for kids… I really like Rick Riordan’s books. He’s a really good writer, and all of his characters feel real. Plus, his plotlines feel so organic, and the mythology behind it is really interesting!”

Marinette lights up as she talks, and Lila finds it sort of cute how she becomes animated as she goes on.

“I actually don’t think I’ve read those.”

“Really? Well, I can always lend them to you! You’ll have to tell me when you read them, though. I wanna know what you think.”

Lila finds her eyes widening, blinking repeatedly in surprise

“Oh… well… if they mean that much to you, I wouldn’t want to accidentally lose them. I can buy them for myself.”

“It’s okay! I know you’ll be careful. And anyway, it would be a shame for you to buy them, then find out you don’t like them.”

Lila had never had anyone offer to lend her things before… In fact, she hadn’t really had someone who got to know the real her before. No one had ever bothered to ask her what she liked. They had always been too dazzled to ask, blinded by the fantastic tales she would tell to ever consider that she might have interests outside of theirs. Of course, she would always put a lot of care into seeming interested in… well, just about anything. As long as they seemed to like it.

“I… well… okay. If you insist.”

“I do! Here, why don’t you come over to my house on Saturday? We can have a little book club. You bring something you really like, and I’ll give you my copy of Percy Jackson.”

Lila feels all her words get stuck in her throat, but she nods. Marinette looks at her expectantly, and she feels like she’s going to blush at any minute. Finally, it dawns on her that Marinette might want to give her the address. She fumbles with her notebook, handing it to the girl. She has enough presence of mind not to leave it on the page that still had Marinette’s number… that would lead to a lot of questions she certainly didn’t want to answer. Marinette writes down her address and hands the notebook back. Lila puts her notebook to the side, looking at her screen awkwardly.

“We, uh… we should probably keep working… wouldn’t want our grades to slip.”

Marinette laughs, slightly awkward, but she nods.

“You’re right. Sorry for distracting you again!”

“Oh, no, it’s okay. I… I’m glad… that we can talk.”

Lila doesn’t dare look at Marinette, instead burying herself in their project. She wouldn’t want to see a confused look, not after she had opened up so much. Marinette was probably oblivious, but she didn’t care. As long as she had a friend.


	5. Book Club

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette and Lila meet for a book swap and share a moment, only for it to be rudely interrupted by a surprise attack.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not dead, really

Lila stands outside the bakery, checking the address for the 20th time. It was right… It was definitely right… but why was she at a bakery? It just seemed… odd. Maybe Marinette had written it wrong. She looks at her phone again, biting her lip. She had added Marinette’s number… but she was still terrified to try texting or calling her. She was still afraid that Marinette didn’t actually like her, and… if that was the case, then she would be a bother for texting.

Lila is pulled out of her reverie by the sound of a shop bell tinkling. She looks over to see a stout asian woman smiling over at her.

“Excuse me, young lady, are you a friend of Marinette’s?”

Lila feels herself blush, nodding in embarrassment. The woman laughs, putting a hand to her mouth.

“You are quite easily flustered. Come in, she’s expecting you upstairs.”

The woman heads back inside, Lila following quickly and tucking her phone back into her bag.

As soon as she stepped in, the smell hit her. She closed her eyes, breathing deeply. Bread, pastries, cakes, pies… all of them filled her senses in a wonderful cyclone. She exhales, the warmth radiating from the display cases relaxing her. She opens her eyes, seeing Mrs. Dupain-Cheng disappear behind a door in the back of the shop. She skips forward, trying to catch up and make it seem like she hadn’t just been standing in the doorway like an idiot.

She ascends the stairs, looking around at the tidy living room. It was smaller than she was used to. She’d never really been in a house this small, honestly… but it felt a lot warmer than she was used to. It felt… cozy.

As she surveyed the living room, she spotted the bright red ribbons and pigtails of Marinette, and smiled. Sitting on the couch next to a man who must be her father, Marinette watches the screen where a baking show is playing. Someone runs over to the oven, looking horrified, as the enormous man gasps. The woman who greeted her downstairs walks behind Marinette, putting a hand on her shoulder.

“Marinette, your friend is here!”

Marinette jumps a little, turning around at that. When she sees Lila, she seems to light up. “Oh, Lila! I wasn’t expecting you yet. I must have lost track of the time.” She smiles apologetically, going to stand.

“We’re going to be in my room if you need me! Tell me how it goes, Papa,” she calls to the enormous man, confirming Lila’s suspicion, as she heads towards a ladder by the side of the room. “My room is upstairs.”

Lila follows, her curiosity getting the better of her. She had wondered what the other girl’s room looked like, although her imagination of it was certainly much bigger than anything that could fit into this apartment. She quickly erases the canopy bed and large closet, replacing it with a more modestly sized version.

Nothing could prepare her, however, for the wall of Adrien that faces her as soon as she enters. No matter where she looks, the model’s face vogues back at her. She stands on the ladder in shock before Marinette looks back. She follows Lila’s gaze to the wall, seeming to realize something suddenly. “Oh, that. Those are just pictures I liked of him. Not to say that they’re the best pictures! Or that he has any bad pictures! A-and he’s not the only thing I have up I have a Jagged Stone poster and some designs by Gabriel Agreste- and not just because he’s Adrien’s father! I really like his designs-”

Lila watches as Marinette becomes flustered and stuttering. She’d never really seen this side of her, but it was really cute. As Marinette babbles on, starting to tire herself out, Lila watches her face, seeing how much she cared. She lit up when she talked about Adrien, her eyes shining and her mouth turning to a wide grin. Even this little bit of talking about his pictures seemed to set her all aflutter.

After a moment Lila realizes that Marinette stopped talking about a minute ago and scrambles to recall where she left off. “Uh- Well, you know, uh… th-there’s nothing wrong with having a lot of… stuff from the same celebrity on your wall. It’s… normal?” She wasn’t sure what to say, since she’d never really been to other people’s houses. She didn’t know if other people had this many pictures of one person. She had some posters on her wall, but not this many, really.

What she said seems to work, though, as Marinette relaxes. She rubs the back of her neck sheepishly, blushing, and Lila finds herself doing the same.

Marinette snaps back to reality, as seemed to happen fairly often with her. “B-but anyway, we’re here to share books! I’ve got mine on my bed over here, what did you bring?”

Lila remembers herself, reaching into her purse and taking out her own book. “It’s a bit more adult… but Terry Pratchett is a very good author. He’s got a very… interesting sense of humor. This one is Reaper Man. None of them are linear, so I thought this might be a good starting place… if you haven’t already read his novels.” She holds out the small and dense volume, showing Marinette the cover of a small snow globe with a grim reaper inside.

Marinette takes it and studies it, clearly interested. “I haven’t heard of him, but I’m happy to try it out! Come on in, you shouldn’t have to stand on a ladder the whole time you’re visiting.” She chuckles a little as she says this, offering a hand for Lila to take. It takes her a moment, but she accepts it and climbs the rest of the way up, her hand lingering on the other girl’s before pulling away.

Marinette gives her a smile before closing the trapdoor to her room. She heads over to her bed, sitting down and flipping the book over to the back, reading the description. After finishing, she looks up, opening her mouth… only to see Lila still standing nervously by the door. She laughs a little, good-naturedly, gesturing to the bed. “Come sit! Make yourself comfortable!”

Lila sheepishly makes her way over, sitting. She still wasn’t comfortable. This was… very new territory for her. Seeing Marinette look so happy though… she relaxes just a little bit. She was at her friend’s house. In her friend’s room, sharing her friend’s book. She reaches over, picking it up.

“That one’s the Lightning Thief. It’s the first one in Percy Jackson and the Olympians. It’s not his… best one, but it was one of his first. I’ll lend you the rest, if you’re still interested after that one. His writing gets really good around Heroes of Olympus.”

Lila listens, nodding. She wasn’t sure if she’d like it or not, that would depend on if it was genuinely interesting. But… she did like to hear Marinette talk about it. She actually, genuinely liked hearing Marinette talk about her interests. Maybe because she put the time in to hear about hers.

“That sounds perfect. If you like this one, I can recommend some of his other stuff. They’re all set on the Discworld, but there’s a couple different… Storylines, you could say. This one is sort of a Death centered one, but there’s witch stories and guard stories too.”

Marinette frowns at that. “Death? That sounds… sort of dark, don’t you think?”

“Ah, it’s… not as bad as it sounds, really. Death in this… he’s kind of his own character. Especially in this story. There’s some… kind of gross monster things in this one, but… well, with the way Paris gets it’s not all that outlandish.” She gives a sheepish grin.

Lila is a bit tense, waiting for Marinette’s reaction. She wasn’t sure how the kind girl beside her would react to a story about Death. She had just really enjoyed this one, she hadn’t really been thinking about how it would sound.

Marinette breaks into another smile, though, relieving Lila’s tension. “That sounds really interesting! It’s funny, fantasy used to be a bit different before I- uh, before Ladybug and Chat Noir came around!” She chuckles a little.

Lila nods along, unable to keep her expression from souring at the mention of the superheroine. Her… it was her fault no one believed her anymore. It was her fault Chloe thought of her as just another person to ridicule, her fault everyone thought of her as a liar, her fault Adrien wasn’t paying attention to her… She still couldn’t stand that… that… superjerk. “Yeah, before they showed up… Paris had more wonder to it.”

Marinette gets quiet for a moment, a pained expression on her face. Lila feels a bit guilty… but even if Marinette was a fan, she probably didn’t know what Ladybug had done to her. Marinette seems to think for a long moment before speaking. “Hey, I wanna show you something.” She stands up, heading over to a staircase against one side of her room. She looks back at Lila, tilting her head up. “C’mon,” was the only thing Lila got before Marinette went up.

Confused, Lila follows her up, wondering what she wanted to show her. There couldn’t be another floor to this apartment, could there? There was barely enough room as is…

When she emerges, she holds up a hand at the sudden sunlight, squinting her eyes so they could adjust. As the bright light fades, she looks out onto a small, beautiful balcony overlooking the city. The rooftops of Paris spread before her, the short railing the only thing between her and the park and buildings below. Her jaw drops in awe as she sees Marinette silhouetted against the sprawling cityscape, her raven hair blown gently in the wind. When she sees Lila’s expression, she smiles, her grin even brighter than the sunlight, her eyes the same blue as the sky. “See? Paris still has some wonder for us.”

Lila finds herself unable to speak, her heart beating loudly in her ears. She climbs up in a reverie, looking around in her speechless state. “Wow, Marinette, this is…” She turns back to her, shock and happiness combining in her expression. “...beautiful.”

* * *

Marinette had thought the view would make Lila feel better. She hadn’t thought that Lila would still be so upset about Ladybug, but she couldn’t blame her. She had been awful, and she still didn’t know how to make it up to her. Sharing a view was the least she could do.

She hadn’t expected to feel so much joy at seeing Lila look so happy, though. It was strange, how much warmth Lila’s wonder had given her. And when she hears Lila say her name aloud for the first time… it sends a strange jolt through her, a pleasant shiver. She smiles through quickly warming cheeks, feeling embarrassed by the beautiful comment. “It’s the least I can do. This view is something that should be shared.”

* * *

Lila feels time slow as she and Marinette simply look into each other’s eyes. She can feel the happiness that was passed between them, and she notices the blush on Marinette’s cheeks as they share a moment that stretches for what seems like forever.

The moment is finally broken as screams erupt from the park below, the two of them looking down to see what look like enormous tentacles snaking their way through the park. Each of the girls’ eyes widen, and Marinette’s expression hardens for a moment as she turns to go back to her room. When she sees Lila in her way, shock on her face, she seems to jolt back to the situation at hand. “Oh no! I, uh, forgot that my dad asked me to go on an errand for him before you got here! They must not have reminded me, since they didn’t want to be rude to a guest. It’s really important, so it can’t wait, but I won’t be long, okay?” She gives an awkward grin to her, gesturing as she sort of babbles.

Lila frowns, wondering what could be so important that she had to go grab it right this second, but nods. “Okay… I’ll be here when you get back.”

Marinette gives her an apologetic look before rushing down the stairs to her room. Lila hears some muffled talking before the sounds from below fade completely. She wonders if that was her parents, come to ask about the errand or something more serious, before seeing a red shape swing past. Anger flashes in her mind as she watches Ladybug land in the park below, beginning to fight the monster only to be joined a moment later by Chat Noir. Her only thought before descending into Marinette’s room is a hope for the girl’s safety. Paris wasn’t such a wonderful place to be with all the supers about.


End file.
